CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: The musical hits high notes despite gorgeous, shaky vocals

all star musicals

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Muhammad Ali

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A little more courtesy, a little less judgment: that’s the tagline on EastEnders actress Jacqueline Jossa’s shirt rehearsing her amazing song from Disney’s Frozen.

These words sum up the softer and more inclusive spirit of post-pandemic Britain. But it can be a problem for talent shows.

judges All Star Musical (ITV) He solved it by getting nothing but praise for the six celebrities who posted their West End hits.

Elaine Paige, Samantha Barks, and Trevor Dion Nicholas never said a bad word to anyone. Nervous newbies couldn’t be easier if their own mothers had handed out the observations.

Shaky voices, muffled high notes, and forgotten lines were swept away. But without the grime of a Simon Cowell or the sharp edges of a Craig Revel Horwood, a talent show lacks excitement. If no one is failing, it doesn’t matter who wins.

Good Morning British meteorologist Alex Beresford wins the grand prize for striding through the concise lines of the rap musical My Shot from Hamilton.

Good Morning British meteorologist Alex Beresford wins the grand prize for striding through the concise lines of My Shot from the rap musical Hamilton (pictured).

In fact, the song seemed too loud for its recording. I didn’t know it was even possible in rap. Alex earned credit for remembering all 1,100 words—long enough to fill a page of this newspaper.

But the others were just as they deserved. Coronation Street’s Lisa George demonstrated the benefits of stage training with a breathtaking solo performance from Maybe This Time from Cabaret. The song was well chosen: “I always wanted to do musical theater,” he said, and “I never could.”

Colin Salmon amused himself as the evil Thénardier in Les Misérables with a tuft of hair all over his face. He’s a charlatan, not a singer, but he has so many personalities that he can turn them off in the back row. I would love to see him play Bill Sikes on Oliver!

The rehearsal footage was edited so you couldn’t understand how the celebs sound until they perform. The more Jacqueline Jossa turned up the voice, the better it got, Michaela Strachan proved to be an agile dancer, and English rugby player Danny Care brought out a surprisingly light voice for such a big man.

A one-of-a-kind show, a standout collection from favorite shows, All Star Musicals is unpretentious entertainment: a glass of prosecco filled with froth and froth.

However, there can never be a series without more content. One is overwhelming, but more than that will only cause you hiccups.

The man who first became world-famous as Cassius Clay could have been a major music star if he hadn’t been the greatest boxer of all time and arguably the most influential celebrity of the 20th century.

He could dance, or “fly like a butterfly,” as he put it, and he definitely had an ego.

Trevor Berbick, left, and Muhammad Ali, right, compete in a heavyweight match at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center in Nassau, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, on December 11, 1981. BBC2’s eight-part documentary about Ken Burns kicks off his 20th birthday and superstar life

His story is told Muhammad Ali (BBC2)An eight-part documentary by Ken Burns. Episode one didn’t take us until his 20th birthday and barely mentioned his superstar after he changed his name to Ali.

Determined to convey his achievements as an athlete and portray him as a force for social change, history has at times become a roster of matches, an inventory of forgotten rivals whose only historical significance is that they once had a fight with the young man. .

But in every news clip, his raw charisma was captivating. Everything he did – even parachuting into a plane for the Olympics because he was afraid of flying – was fun and breathtaking. What a giant.